Mass Effect - Brothers in Arms
by Durai
Summary: Zack Johnson and Cale Damon are two friends, both Marines. They go through wartime, as an unknown threat slowly comes closer to destroying all intelligent life in the galaxy... Same sort of material will be used as in the games, so the rating is T, but it's borderline Mature, so be warned!
1. Chapter 1 - Ambush on Tuntau

**Mass Effect – Brothers in Arms**

Chapter 1 – Ambush on Tuntau

It had been several weeks since the Geth attack on Eden Prime. We all heard what happened, of course, but it had been relatively quiet since then. Commander Shepard became a Spectre and he was hunting down the rogue Spectre Saren for his crimes against the galaxy. But in the meantime, the more 'normal' marines had other things to worry about.

My name is Zack Johnson. Me and my friend, Cale Damon, have been training all our lives to join the Alliance Marines. After our normal training was over, we were assigned to Pinnacle Station, for special training, though they never mentioned why we got this training.

And it wasn't long before we had something else to do, too. Exactly two weeks after the Geth attacked Eden Prime, Pinnacle Station received a message: 'This is Tuntau Outpost Z-06, we are under heavy fire, I repeat, heavy fire! We need immediate reinforcements!' After that, the audio was cut off, but not before a massive explosion could be heard.

Right after that, another message came up on the holoscreens. It was our Commander. He said: 'There are no Alliance ships in the vicinity right now, so we need our best marines on this. I want Zack Johnson and Cale Damon to report to me right away!'

I looked at Cale. 'You think this is gonna be difficult?' I asked. Cale just grinned. 'We're the two best marines on this entire damn station, surely we can handle a few Geth!' We started heading for the Commander's office.

Once there, we saluted and saluted our superior. 'Commander,' we greeted him in unison. 'Johnson. Damon,' he replied. 'I know you two are dying for some real action, since even our hardest training programs have become easy for you two. And I'm not saying this lightly, as we train only the elite here.'

Cale and I exchanged worried looks. If he needed top-notch soldiers, then things down on Tuntau were worse than we thought they were. 'What exactly do you need us to do down there, sir?' Cale asked. 'I'll give you two a Mako to move around in and your very own weapons to use. What you two need to do is go to that outpost, see if there is anyone still alive and then secure the area. Once you've secured it, I'll send another team down to take it over from you two.' We saluted at the same time. 'Yes, sir!' we said.

On the way to the armory, Cale sighed. 'What's wrong?' I asked. He shook his head. 'Nothing. I'm just thinking… I'm more of a sniper, Zack. Since you're the assault rifle guy, you should head in first, and I'll back you up from a distance, ok?' I gave him a heavy pat on the back, which made him lose his breath a little. 'I'm always up for a bit of straight-up action, Cale!' I replied. We laughed all the way to the armory.

Once there, we were greeted by the Commander's face on the holoscreen. He said: 'Look to your left. I prepared two lockers for you which will contain your gear. Put it on and then step inside the shuttle in the hangar. The Mako is already inside it. I'll remotely fly you two there, so step inside the Mako once you get into the shuttle. Any Geth sighted are to be destroyed on sight. Good luck.'

Cale was the first one to open his gear, and he was delighted to see his equipment. 'Medium armor, and… Wow, look at this!' He triumphantly held up a Mantis Sniper Rifle. 'This baby is gonna do just fine!' he said. I rolled my eyes. 'I'm just happy with my Lancer, man. It feels light and stiff, so I think they revved this thing up a little bit just for me!' Cale shrugged. 'As long as it works for you, it's good!'

About five minutes later we were already inside the Mako. We then felt the shuttle taking off, taking us with it. 'You look a bit nervous, Zack!' Cale shouted over the noise. I shook my head. 'I just hate all this shaking around. Makes me wanna puke!' Cale's grin disappeared. 'Don't even think about it!' he yelled. Then we touched down.

'I'll drive, you shoot,' I said. Cale nodded and took the gun controls while I sat down in the front with the driving controls for the Mako. I drove it out of the shuttle slowly and then went full speed for the source of the distress signal.

About a kilometer before we'd get there, Cale hissed: 'Wait, stop!' I stopped the Mako and looked back at him with a frown. 'What is it?' I asked. He pointed towards where we were heading. 'There's Geth over there, I spotted some. If you want, I can take 'em out, but it'll have to be quick. The Mako is armored, but it won't survive a full-on assault!'

I took the controls again and drove it towards the Geth slowly. As we got closer, Cale's breathing got heavier. And then, at around 600 meters distance, I started hearing explosions and machine gun fire; Cale started attacking.

I reacted immediately by speeding up the Mako and ramming one of the Geth Armatures. I crushed its head with the Mako's wheels. Behind me I could hear Cale roar: 'Take that, you Geth bitches!' I grinned, that Cale would never change…

Two more Armatures and about ten Juggernauts attacked us, but due to Cale's near-perfect aiming skills, they were taken care of soon. However, when I looked back to check on the distress signal, it was gone from the sensors.

'Cale, get back in here and take a look at this!' I yelled. Cale came down and looked towards where I pointed at. 'What the… Where's the signal?' he said. 'That's just it – it's gone!' I replied. Cale scratched his chin. 'Okay, we better get to that location ASAP. Maybe we'll see what happened.' I nodded and restarted the Mako's engine, resuming our course to the source of the signal.

When we got to the signal location, the first thing I saw on visuals was dead bodies. I narrowed my eyes, something was terribly wrong, here. I stopped the Mako and Cale and I got out. I pointed at a nearby hill. 'Cale, take up position there, get your sniper out and scan the area. Make sure I don't get ambushed.' He nodded shortly and headed for the hill.

I started advancing to the emergency beacon, which was turned off, by the looks of it. I grabbed my assault rifle and held it close. As I looked around further, I saw that I was nearing a ledge. I looked over and saw what I thought I would: a crashed ship. Then I nearly shot at the ship, because I heard sounds coming from it.

Through the radio, I said: 'Cale, get over here. There's a crashed ship, might be some survivors. I'm going in, back me up.' 'Got it, heading – Wait, something's coming!' he answered. I looked behind me quickly, only to see a Geth ship drop off Geth Troopers. 'Shit, shoot to kill!' I yelled. I ran to the nearest rock formation, ducked behind them and got ready to shoot.

I heard sniper shots and Geth parts flying around. 'Nice aim, now let's have a killing contest!' I said. I got up and shot down five Geth in quick succession. Then I ducked back to dodge the incoming fire. 'Crap… We can't hold out here forever!' I said. Cale replied: 'That's what you think, watch this!'

Suddenly, I heard the sniper sounds louder and much, much faster. I looked up and all the Geth had lost their heads. 'You cheater, when the hell did you modify your Mantis?!' I yelled. I could hear Cale laughing from the hill.

But then, our day got a lot worse. First I heard a growl, then a rumble in the ground. I heard Cale cursing through the comm. 'Shit, it's a Thresher Maw, get the hell out of there!' he yelled. I started running just in time, because the Thresher Maw came out of the ground exactly at the place where I stood a few moments ago.

The roar it let out was deafening, and I could smell its breath – it smelled like rotting meat and vomit, combined with the smell of a pile of shit in a bucket of water, left in the sun for three weeks.

I pointed my rifle at the Thresher Maw and I started shooting at its head. I must have hit its eye, because it started shaking its head spastically and it spat venom all over the place. Then it ducked underground again.

When I looked over to Cale's location, I noticed earth being moved in his location. 'Cale, it's coming your way!' I yelled. Too late. The Thresher Maw ducked up out of the hill, launching Cale up into the air. But then, Cale did something I thought I'd never see.

While in the air, he spun around and threw a grenade into the Thresher's mouth. Then he used his sniper rifle to propel himself forward just a bit, so he wouldn't end up in its mouth. The Thresher Maw exploded right as he fell down to the ground. I heard him yell out in pain and the sound of breaking bones.

'Damn it, my leg!' he roared. I ran over to him as fast as I could and kneeled down next to him. 'That was awesome, but you need a med evac!' He grabbed my shoulder. 'I gotta tell this to the Krogan, pretty sure they'd like me!' he said. Then he passed out. I grinned, Cale always liked the Krogan, the warrior species from Tuchanka. He respected them greatly.

I changed comm channel to contact Pinnacle Station: 'Mission success, we found out what's going on here. A ship was shot down, no survivors. We need a med evac, my squadmate broke his leg. It's an open bone fracture, get down here now!'

I stayed with Cale until the shuttle came down, and I carried him into the shuttle personally. I put him down on a seat slowly and then sat down myself and removed my helmet. One of the soldiers looked at me. 'Did you two fight a Thresher Maw, or something? You're covered in some weird-lookin' blood!'

I raised an eyebrow, observed my own armor and then I laughed out loud. He was right, my armor was painted green with Thresher blood. 'Well yeah, we did fight a Thresher Maw. It exploded when he threw a grenade in its mouth,' I said, and I pointed at Cale.

The soldier grinned. 'Nice action. I got orders from Command. You get shore leave, Cale goes to the med bay. You did a good job, man. I'll bring the CO up to speed to let him know you killed a Thresher Maw.' I nodded in thanks and leaned back. It was gonna be a long ride back to Pinnacle Station…

**That's the end of chapter 1. I'm working on this with another fan fic writer, a friend of mine, so uploading won't happen regularly. Anyway, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review as it really helps me out and, as always, have an awesome day!**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Wolf

**Chapter 2 – The Wolf**

**Cale POV**

Two Earth Days later

When I woke up, I saw that I was in some kind of hospital. When the nurse came in, I saw the Pinnacle Station insignia on her shoulder. I breathed out in relief – I was on familiar ground, at least.

Then I looked at my legs. They looked healed. 'Looks like my legs are fine,' I thought. I tried to move my legs, but then a pain coursed through all my nerves, which left my brain tingling. The pain was so sudden and so much, I wanted to scream.

'Okay… Maybe they're still in pieces, after all.' I said to myself. Surprised by the sound of my voice, she turned around, but smiled when she saw me sitting up straight. 'Ah, you're awake, Private Damon. How are you feeling?'

I looked at her with a dry expression and answered: 'Like hammered shit.' It took the nurse a while to stop laughing from my sudden joke. Then she said: 'It would be best if you don't try to use your legs just yet. They are currently being reconstructed with carbon nano tubes, which contain your own bone marrow. There wasn't any other alternative to put them together, and amputating them seemed like a bad idea.'

Then she showed me a holopad. 'Unfortunately, your upcoming therapy and other expenses have been covered from your military insurance and personal bank account. Take a look.'

I looked at the holopad and saw that my bank account now contained only five credits. 'Oh, fuckin' A!' I yelled. The nurse gave me a pat on the shoulder. 'Not to worry, though, once you go on missions again when you recover, your bank account will be filled again in no time.' I grumbled, but I left it at that.

As the nurse turned around to tend to the machinery on my legs, I turned my head sideways to look out the window. All I saw was stars, glistening in the dark empty void that was outer space.

Then I heard knocking on the door. The nurse opened the door and after a few words, she went outside and someone came in. I grinned when I recognized Zack. He grinned back. 'Hey, moron of the day. They're still fixing your legs, I see… How are you feeling?'

I just raised an eyebrow. 'That stupid worm did quite a number on me, but I'll be alright. Didn't realize my Mantis had that much recoil, though… I have to do something about that!' Zack shook his head. 'That recoil saved your life, my friend. But assuming you're never gonna do crazy shit like that again, I'd fix that recoil, yeah.'

Then I continued: 'I need to get myself a pistol, too. The Lancer is a bit too heavy for my tastes… How about an M-6 Predator? I still have one; I just have to tweak it a little bit.' Zack patted me on the back. 'First you need to get patched up, man. Then we'll see.'

At the same moment Zack was speaking, our CO came inside. 'Johnson, Damon, that was some impressive work down there. You sprung a trap and even got out of it alive. Not every soldier can say that.'

Then he looked at Zack. 'I saw your reports on the mission, Johnson. You handled yourself well.' Then he looked at me. 'But what you did was pure insanity. I expected Johnson to charge into the fray like some kind of hero, but that maneuver you did against the Thresher Maw was damn well impressive!'

Then, he turned earnest again. 'I hope you recover soon, Damon. You and Johnson are my best team and I'm not sending Johnson anywhere without you. And as it happens, there will be a very special mission for you two when you recover. Secret ops, so you both have two months to prepare for it. It's only going to get worse.' Then he turned around and left.

I sighed. 'What am I going to do for two whole damn months?!' I said. Zack grinned. 'Well… As I noticed on Tuntau, you're pretty good with modifying weapons. What do you say to this: I'll bring my Lancer to you so you can modify it. At least you won't be bored out of your mind. I'll bring it to you later, see ya!'

I grinned and laid down flat. I looked outside again. Now I saw ships leaving the station. With a shock, I recognized the SR-1, the Normandy. 'Ah, so Commander Shepard was here…' I mumbled before falling into a deep sleep.

Two months later

'Now take a step… and another one… That's right, Cale, you're doing fine!' the nurse, Lisa, said. I grinned widely. 'I can finally take some steps again,' I said with joy. She nodded gravely. 'You can, but don't overwork it. The bonding process in your bones isn't complete yet. We're only doing this to prevent your muscles from deteriorating.'

I sighed and nodded. 'So, what now?' I asked. Lisa smiled. 'Now that you can at least walk, I advise you go to your room and get working on the weapon on your desk. It's already been taken apart for you to modify.'

My eyes grew in excitement. 'Finally, something to work on!' I said, completely relieved. Then I turned around and started walking towards my room. It took me some effort, and I had to hold on to the walls several times, but I managed.

When I entered my room, I saw that Lisa wasn't kidding. I saw parts of a Lancer on my desk, with a note next to it. I picked it up and read: "Time to practice your hobby, bud. If you can, increase the firing rate. More range would be good, and better heat absorption as well. Just don't put a scope on it, I hate those things. Thanks, Zack."

I put the note down and scratched my chin, where a short beard had formed. Then I knew what to do and I sat down. First I put in a few more heat sinks and attached a different kind of barrel made of a new tech metal.

Then I looked at the firing mechanism. Zack wanted to shoot faster and that would increase, so I replaced the old spring with one of my own design. This way, the recoil went down to almost zero. Then I screwed around with the firing mechanism, tweaking it so that it would fire faster.

Then I modified the ammo itself, so it became a bit longer. I grinned. 'Armor-piercing ammo, Zack's going to love this!' I put the rest of the rifle back together and pressed a button that brought up a target in my room. I stood up and fired a couple of rounds at the target, and I even managed to amaze myself. 'Now this is one damn good rifle!' I said.

Then I put the rifle down again. 'Let's give Zack an extra surprise…' I mumbled. Luckily I still had vinyl patterns lying around. I grabbed the one with the image of a howling wolf on it and put it on the rifle. Zack really loved wolves, and I could understand why. They're beautiful animals with intelligence that amazes me sometimes.

The fur of the vinyl wolf was black and white and its eyes were yellow-orange. I looked at the rifle and smiled contently. I was happy with the results, Zack would probably be, too. Then I put the rifle under my bed and went to the gym, to start hitting the weights again. I had to get back in shape ASAP, because that two-month mark was over in two weeks.

Two weeks later, I was deemed fit for duty again. I was in my room again when Zack came in. 'Hey man, enjoying your longest shore leave ever?' he asked. I grinned. 'Heh. Well, that job of yours seems more boring than anything I've gone through the last two months!'

Zack stomped me on the shoulder. 'Oh, you stupid cripple. The only reason I accepted that job is to get some more credits. But damn, if that job didn't just shorten my lifespan by 20 years!' We both laughed. Then I said: 'Hey, I've got something to show you, give me a second.'

He crossed his arms and waited. I took out the Lancer from under my bed and gave it to him. 'There you go, in tip-top shape, modified and more effective than ever!' I said. Much to my surprise, Zack's eyes were a bit watery.

'Oh, so you like her, don't you?' I asked. He nodded in response. 'I'm never gonna use any other rifle but this one,' he said. Then he saw the wolf and he smiled. 'Oh, this is nice! How'd you get this onto the rifle?' I pointed at my box with vinyl. He saw what I meant and said: 'Ah, that's how.'

Then he looked at his rifle again. 'You look better than ever, Venator,' he mumbled. I raised an eyebrow. 'Venator?' I asked. He nodded. 'Yeah, it means predator in Latin. That's how I named my rifle.' I nodded and watched how he tried out several stances. Then he noticed the button on my desk. He looked at me like a little kid and asked: 'May I?' I grinned and answered: 'Sure, go ahead.'

Zack pressed the button and the target popped up. Zack immediately shot it from multiple stances, all shots full into the heart or head. I clapped slowly. 'For an assault trooper, you're pretty good.' Zack grinned. 'Was that a compliment or an insult to us assault boys?'

Then our CO picked up the intercom and said: Johnson and Damon, report to me immediately.' I looked at Zack and smiled. 'Time to go on that special mission we were going to get sent on!' I said. He nodded and led the way to the CO's office. The door opened and our CO greeted us.

'Welcome, you two. Two months ago, we received word that Commander Shepard has become the first Human Spectre, and he's currently hunting down rogue Spectre Saren Arterius. He is believed to be extremely dangerous and a threat to the entire galaxy. However, he has spread his Geth forces all over the systems around us. It's going to be up to you two to drive them out of this system, firstly.'

I nodded slowly. Cale asked: 'Are we to do this alone, sir?' he asked. He shook his head, to our surprise. 'No, you will have a team. And to get the rights to lead a team, I'm promoting you to Sergeant-Major and your friend Cale to Sergeant.' Then he looked at me. 'You'll be his second in command, make sure the team runs smoothly.' I saluted. 'Yes, sir!' I replied.

The CO nodded and he led us out of the room to the hangar. There, we saw a shuttle landing. The door opened and three men and two women stepped out. One of the women was an Asari, the other was human, by the looks of it. The men consisted out of a human, a Salarian, and, much to our surprise, a Krogan.

I grinned when I saw the Krogan. The CO introduced them: 'Meet these five brave soldiers. They will be under your command. The assault warrior who follows orders well and works wonders on enemy lines – his nickname is Khan.' Khan nodded and with his deep voice he said: 'Honored to be here, sir.'

Then, the Salarian male. 'He's an expert hacker and a stealth magician. Nicknamed Ghost,' our CO said. 'Pleasure to be here, humans,' he said. Then the human male stepped forward: My name is Jared, I'm an explosives specialist, including grenades and rocket launchers. You need anything blown up, I'm your guy.' Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zack smiling. I could tell he was already going to like him, just because he could cause explosions.

Then the human female was introduced by our CO: This is Kate Graham, nicknamed Tigress.' Zack raised an eyebrow. 'Why's that?' he asked. Kate stepped forward and put Zack on the ground in only three seconds. 'Now you know,' she said. I was laughing, of course, it's always fun to see Zack being put in his place. Zack got up and nodded.

Lastly, the Asari. She stepped forward by herself and said: 'My name is Jesanya Seris. I'm a biotic, as you might have guessed. I'll try to keep you all alive.' I nodded and she stepped back. The CO said: 'This is your squad from now on. Welcome to Wolf Squad, everyone!'

**Thank you very much for reading this chapter, hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review as it really helps me out and, as always, have an awesome day!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Saving Benning

**Brothers in Arms**

Chapter 3 – Saving Benning

**Zack POV**

We stepped into the shuttle and our pilot immediately took off for our destination, wherever that would be. Before the mission, Cale got out his vinyl again and put it on the weapons of the rest of the squad. Now Wolf Squad was really representing!

When we dropped out of hyperspeed, the comm channel opened and we saw Commander Aston on the screen. 'Wolf Squad, this is your first mission. We're not giving you something easy, but this will be a good chance for all of you to show off your skills to the two in charge.'

I heard Khan laughing with his deep, rumbling voice from behind me. 'Time to blow stuff up?' he asked eagerly. Commander Aston shook his head. 'No blowing things up, Khan. Try to pace yourself.' Khan grunted in disappointment.

'Where are we going and what's the op?' I asked. Commander Aston looked at a holopad and said: 'Your mission will take place on Benning.' I immediately stepped forward. 'That's my home planet! What happened?!' I yelled.

Cale put an arm in front of me and pushed me back a little. 'Calm down, sir. We're not there yet,' he said. Commander Aston continued: 'We received an emergency transmission from Benning. One of the colonies is under attack by slavers. They're trying to abduct the entire population and then jump to hyperspace. If they escape, we'll have near to no chance of ever finding those civilians again.'

Tigress tilted her head. 'So I suppose it's two separate missions – Protect civilians and kill or capture the slavers?' 'That's right,' Commander Aston said, 'Your mission is to keep everyone safe and get those slavers off that planet. If you can capture a few for interrogation, that would be good. Otherwise, you have my permission to shoot on sight.' I saluted. 'Yes, sir!' I said. The comm hung up and I turned to my squad.

'Guys, this is it. This is your moment to prove your worth to us,' I said. I noticed everyone was looking at me directly. I continued: 'This is my home planet, and I'm prepared to do anything it takes to protect these people. I ask not that you sacrifice yourself in vain just to serve, but to do your very best or die trying. Now, let's save those people!' Wolf Squad cheered and we all got ready for landing.

The shuttle touched down. People were screaming in the streets. I cursed. 'My family might be in danger…' I muttered. Then the shuttle doors opened and immediately we spread out and shot every slaver on sight. I took a bullet, but my shields absorbed it. Cale frowned. 'Try to be more careful, will you?!' he yelled.

I ducked behind some crates and threw a grenade towards the slavers. I heard a BANG and three men screaming. I checked targets and breathed out in relief. I only hit slavers, no civilians. I stood back up. 'Alright, we should split up into two teams. One team will focus on protecting civilians and neutralizing any direct threats to them, the other team will look for the slavers' FOB and destroy it.'

Jesanya stepped forward. 'If you need people protecting civilians, then I can guard them with my biotic shields,' she said. Cale backed her up. 'I'll take charge of this group,' he said. Then he pointed at Khan. 'Khan, how good are you with an assault rifle?' Khan grabbed his rifle and loaded it. 'Loaded and ready for mayhem,' he answered.

I grinned, I could almost see Cale glowing with pride. Having a Krogan under his command was like a dream come true for him. Then I gestured Jared, Tigress and Ghost to follow. 'You three follow me. The rest, follow Cale's lead and protect survivors. Move out!' And our two groups went separate ways.

We hadn't walked two streets ahead or we heard gunfire from the other side. I immediately opened up my comm channel with Cale. 'You guys okay, bro?' I asked. 'Yeah, but there's some slavers in our way. Don't worry, we're already taking care of them. I'm going to- hold on!' I heard the sound of punches and then an omniblade going through a man's body. 'As I was saying, I want to gather all the civilians I can and bring them to one central point. We can set up a defensive perimeter there.'

I was about to agree with his plan, but I heard people running our way. 'Alright, tell them to meet at the open spot close by. I got a situation of my own over here!' I said. 'Copy that, Cale out,' he replied. I shut down the comm channel and readied my rifle.

I saw civilians running, one among them had a gun. He shot at something in the alley behind him, but he was quickly gunned down. Ghost growled. 'Want me to sneak up there and take them out?' he asked. I nodded. 'Do it,' I replied. Ghost activated his stealth mode and started moving towards the slavers.

They came out of the alley and as soon as they saw us, they diverted their attention away from the civilians. 'Damn, it's Alliance soldiers! Shoot them!' one of them yelled. Too bad for them we had Ghost with us. Like a shadow, he deactivated his stealth mode and used two omniblades to kill both slavers. Then he quickly turned around, pulled out his pistol and shot a third one in the leg.

I let out a short whistle. 'Damn, you're good!' Ghost came back grinning. 'What'd you expect? I'm technically with the STG!' Everyone gathered around me and we walked to the crippled slaver. I kneeled down next to him. 'Hold still for a second,' I said, and I applied some medi-gel to his leg.

'Why are you helping me?' the slaver asked. I looked him dead in the eyes. 'Because I want information. And you're going to give it to us.' The slaver first looked at his leg, then at us and then back at his leg again. 'Alright, I'll help you… On the condition that you get me to a safe place. These guys don't tolerate traitors.' I nodded. 'Probably not entirely what you want to hear, but our prisons are one of the safest places in the galaxy. No-one will try to kill you and you will be treated fairly.'

I helped the man up, and as we walked, I started asking questions. 'Who are you guys really, and what are you doing on Benning? And what's your name, by the way?' The man kept looking ahead. 'My name is Axel. The group I'm with…' I gave him a little nudge. 'Uh, the group I WAS with are slavers, they want to sell people in the slave market. Makes them tons of credits.'

I gave the signal to stop, because something got caught in my radio channel that wasn't supposed to be there. 'Guys, the boss is here personally. He's bragging about some kind of trophy he has with him, but he'll get pissed off if he knows that we're getting our asses handed to us by Alliance Marines. So kill them already and get it over with!'

I frowned. 'What kind of trophy does he have?' I asked. Axel looked at me. 'I think he has some kind of Prothean-looking thing,' he answered. My eyes widened. 'Okay Axel, we can take it from here. Go to our shuttle and wait there. And don't even think about stealing it, our pilot is a trained martial artist and has very good aim.' He nodded and hobbled off.

I looked back at Jared, Ghost and Tigress. 'Ghost and Tigress, could you find out where their base of operations is? When you find it, contact me. Jared and I will prepare explosives.' Ghost saluted and started scanning around. Tigress, however, grabbed me by the arm.

'If you cause an explosion here, make sure there's no collateral damage,' she said. I shook my head. 'If it's underneath other apartments, then they don't leave me much of a choice,' I answered. But she shook her head. 'You always have a choice. Just kill them and salvage their data. And try to take that Prothean trophy of theirs. Jesanya might be interested in it.' Then she followed Ghost and disappeared out of eyesight.

I turned around to face Jared. 'Alright, what do you have with you, Jared?' I asked. He grinned and showed me his equipment. 'I got Cain Trip Mines, grenades, an EMP and, my personal favorite, a rocket launcher.' I nodded in satisfaction. 'This will do nicely,' I muttered. Then I was contacted by Cale.

'What's up?' I asked. 'We're pinned down, but we're okay. We got a big group of civilians with us, at least fifty people. Jesanya can only keep so many people in her shield, so Khan and me are shooting up these slavers. I'll be fine for now, how are things on your end?'

I sighed. 'I found their base, but I sent Tigress and Ghost ahead for recon. I told them to report any findings to me.' I heard guns going off again. 'Okay, me and Jared are off to find that base. Try not to spoil all the fun for me, eh?' I said. Cale laughed. 'When do I ever?' he replied.

I cut off the comm channel and ordered Jared to follow me. We fought our way through at least two of the eight streets we went through until I heard Ghost on the comm channel: 'Johnson, I found their base. Tigress is covering my back, but we can't stay here forever. What are our orders?' 'What's your current position?' I asked. A short pause. 'We're fifty meters to the left from you, sir,' Ghost said. I nodded and said: 'Jared, don't take out your rocket launcher just yet. We need to see that FOB first.' Jared nodded and prepared his pistol, an N7 Eagle.

As we went on, we started hearing increased activity in front of us. When we saw Ghost and Tigress, we also saw the reason why we heard such ruckus. The base was a separate building, luckily, but there were at least twenty slavers in there, plus an evil-looking Krogan.

'Why are the others not reporting in?' he asked. One of the slavers answered: 'Because they're all dead, sir. The Marines apparently split up into two groups and one of them is protecting civilians. We don't know where the other group is.'

The Krogan hit him so hard, his head exploded. Then he looked around. 'If you don't bring me the heads of those Marines, I'll kill you all and keep the money for myself. AM I CLEAR, DAMN IT?!' 'Yes, sir!' everyone yelled.

I shook my head. 'Look at them,' I whispered, 'They're afraid of him. I'm gonna call some backup. You three, start shooting. Take cover and don't get killed. This is only the first of many missions together!' Jared grinned. 'Some real action, at last!' Tigress remained neutral, but I saw the spark of excitement in her eyes.

'Alright… GO!' I yelled out. As the slavers turned their heads, they all got hit between the eyes as they turned around to face our group. The Krogan was the first to notice what was going on and took cover. 'It's the other group, attack them!' he roared.

Meanwhile, I ducked behind a crate and contacted Cale. 'We found the base, we're assaulting them head-on. Need backup, now!' I heard Cale yelling: 'Jesanya, Khan, bring the civilians back to the landing site, I'll go and help!'

I closed the comm channel and started shooting myself. I hit about five of them before I noticed Tigress had taken the back entrance and was using melee combat to get through their ranks. She was like a whirlwind, kicking people, punching them, using her elbows and knees… She really was a professional martial artist.

I focused on firing back at the slavers. I slowly felt my Lancer growing warmer and warmer. I cursed. 'Almost overheated!' I yelled. Ghost switched to his pistol and started shooting the slavers in rapid succession. Then, one of the slavers' heads exploded, and only when it did, did I notice that it was caused by a sniper bullet.

I looked back and saw Cale aiming. He fired… and hit the Krogan in one of his legs. I saw his scream out in pain and he started crawling back into the base. I gestured Cale to move ahead and we advanced into the base, killing everyone but the Krogan.

He tried to aim his shotgun at me, but I shot it out of his hands. He growled and tried to stand back up, but the hole in his leg was so big that his leg just snapped off. He cried out in pain and then looked me straight in the eye. 'I know you have a Krogan with you,' he said. 'He's the only one I'll speak to.' I raised an eyebrow. 'I don't think so, big guy. You're gonna tell me what you did, why you did it and then I'm taking you into custody.'

The Krogan grinned. 'Well, hotshot, you're gonna have a field day with me. Because I'm not spilling the beans on why I'm here or what I'm doing.' I sighed. 'As you wish.' I gave Ghost a signal. Ghost then proceeded to stomp on the Krogan's arm. The Krogan then retaliated by grabbing his leg and throwing him across the room.

Luckily, Ghost had rocket boots, so he managed to land safely. I frowned. 'Unless you want me to cap you here and now, you're gonna tell me everything. NOW!' and I kicked him in the face hard. This time, he was in real pain. His nose was bleeding and I dislocated his jaw.

I kicked again to put his jaw back in place. 'There. Now tell me what's going on!' The Krogan growled, but then submitted. 'Fine… Record this info if you want, but kill me after this. Living with one leg is impossible for a Krogan. We need to be strong and fit.'

Ghost came standing next to me. 'I'll record everything he has to say, sir,' he said. I nodded and kneeled down in front of the Krogan. 'Okay, now talk. From the start.' The Krogan nodded. 'As you probably know, we're slavers. We sell people on the slave market and earn a fortune with it. But this is a case you probably shouldn't have messed with.'

I didn't flinch, but deep inside I wondered what he meant. While thinking, Cale had already entered the building and he overheard almost the entire conversation. 'Why not?' he asked. The Krogan now looked at him. 'Because my group works for the Blood Pack. Anyone who messes with them is dead. You guys better know what you're getting yourselves into…'

Then Cale shot him through the head. I stood up, angry. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?!' Cale just looked at me and pointed at the Krogan's body. When I looked, I saw that he actually pulled a pistol and had almost aimed it at me. 'Damn… Thanks,' I said. Cale just patted me on the shoulder and headed over to the computer.

'Hey, come take a look at this!' he said. Then Jared yelled: 'Hold on, let me look at that. It could be rigged!' he headed over to Cale and looked at the monitors. Then he pressed a couple of buttons and a timer started counting down. 'Aw, fuck this!' Jared growled. He grabbed something out of his armor, plugged it into one of the monitors and started pressing lots of buttons.

As he proceeded, the timer started slowing down. Then he yelled: 'There's a lot of data on here, but this thing is gonna blow up this base as soon as the timer hits zero. I can't stop the timer completely, but I can slow it down! HURRY!'

Ghost ran to another monitor and plugged in a data siphon. Then he pressed a button and the siphon started copying all files onto itself. As the copying went on, so did the timer. I started to sweat. 'Why won't that thing go any faster?' I mumbled. Then Ghost said: 'It's done! Everyone get out of here!' He grabbed the data siphon and we all ran out of the base. I left last. And just in time, because that was when the rigging went off.

The entire base was blown apart. Pieces of metal and shrapnel flew around and we had to take cover to avoid being shredded. The explosion slowly subsided and the ringing in my ears disappeared quickly.

I stood up. 'Everyone okay?' I asked. I heard groaning from around me. 'Okay? Really? Go fuck yourself.' Cale said. I laughed, this was typically him. Everyone stood up. Except Tigress. She sat up straight slowly, then looked around, seemingly confused.

I kneeled down next to her. 'Tigress, are you okay?' She didn't respond. 'Kate!' This time she looked at me. 'Was that explosion really that big?' she asked. I took her head and turned it towards the crater where the base once stood. 'See for yourself,' I said.

She breathed out in relief. 'At least we weren't in the base when it blew… Help me up, will you?' I pulled her up and said: 'Come on, guys. Mission successful, we're going back to Pinnacle Station. Everyone back to the shuttle!'

Upon arriving at the shuttle, Khan, Jesanya and Axel were waiting for us. I grinned. 'You guys made it alright, I see?' I said. Khan grinned. 'Poor bastards never stood a chance. The civilians have already been picked up. We heard the explosion. Why'd I have to miss out on all the fun?' Cale started laughing. 'I like him!' he said.

Khan walked over to him and patted him on the shoulder so hard that he fell over. But Cale kept laughing and soon, the entire squad joined in. Even Jesanya started snickering a bit. Then the shuttle arrived and we stepped on.

A few hours later, we were back in the Pinnacle Station hangar, where we were greeted by Commander Aston. His face didn't show any emotion, but I could feel that he was happy with the results.

'Welcome back, Wolf Squad. I see you all made it back in one piece,' he said. Jesanya nodded. 'I tried to keep Khan that way, but he seems to like combat. I protected the civilians, instead. It went quite well.'

Cale nodded. 'Mister Johnson here nearly got shot by the enemy leader. So I shot him before Zack got killed. Commander Aston nodded. 'Well done. I'd hate to see my top squad fall apart already.' Then he looked at me personally.

'You did well in leading Wolf Squad, Johnson. You get to keep the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, as well as your command over Wolf Squad. I'm proud of all of you.' He saluted, we saluted in return and we all went our ways. On the way out, I stopped Jesanya.

'What is it, sir?' she asked. I smiled gently. 'We're on Pinnacle, you're always at ease here.' She nodded. 'Okay… What is it, Zack?' I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Krogan's Prothean trophy.

Jesanya's eyes grew. 'How did you get that? And when?' I grinned. Just after Cale shot him, it fell out of his pocket. I grabbed it as soon as it did, so no-one noticed, I guess. Figured you'd want to have it.'

She nodded slowly. 'Well, you were right, there. I do indeed want to have and study this. Can you give me some time with it? I can see if there's anything I can do with it. If I find out anything, I'll tell you first, then we can present our findings to Commander Aston.'

I patted her on the shoulder. 'Good idea. Now go and have a good time, Jesanya. I'll be training for the next mission, myself.' And I left for my room, waiting for the next time to be called upon to fight. And it wouldn't be easy next time…

**That's it for chapter 3. Thank you very much for reading, hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review as it really helps me out and, as always, have an awesome day!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Crisis at Pinnacle

**Brothers in Arms**

Chapter 4 – Crisis at Pinnacle

**Cale POV**

Zack grinned while everyone gathered around him. He called everyone to Pinnacle Station's club after the mission, and how could we say no to that?

He called the bartender and said: 'Bartender, seven shots, please! And be careful, we have a Krogan, an Asari and a Salarian, here!' The bartender confirmed the order with a nod and pulled out 7 shot glasses and filled them all.

Zack handed us each a shot glass, being careful with which liquid belonged to which species. When everyone had a shot glass, he started speaking: 'So… We're all here. Wolf Squad. The newest Spec Ops squad in the entire Alliance. How do you guys feel about this?'

I grinned. 'Feels damn great being at the top!' I said. He grinned back. Then Ghost said: 'I normally work with STG, but this is something different… I get to see more action with you guys. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time!'

Tigress said: 'Well, I'm used to action, but being in a squad like this changes the feeling of being a soldier. Gives me more of a feeling that I belong here.' Khan followed: 'I usually join any group that likes blowing stuff up. Too bad I missed out on the action earlier, but I hope I won't next time!' I laughed. I liked Khan, I really did.

Jared said: 'I lost a brother during a battle. It was because of explosives. Working with them makes me feel like I can save people with them. Besides, I was already a technical genius at age 8, so that comes in handy, I guess!'

Lastly, Jesanya spoke up: 'We protect innocents, that's enough for me.' Zack nodded. 'And there we have it. I guess that means everyone's happy to be here, then!' He paused a second and looked down. 'From the news, I heard that the slavers had killed many before starting the abductions. My parents were among the casualties.'

I put a hand on his shoulder. 'I'm sorry, bro,' I said. 'My condolences.' Khan then shouted: 'Korbal!' Zack and I looked at him with raised eyebrows. Khan said: 'It means 'victory or death'. Well, that's a rough translation, but it's what it comes down to.'

Then Zack raised his eyes again, looked straight at us and raised his glass. 'No matter how much we lost, we always have each other. This is Wolf Squad, the best damn squad in the galaxy, and there's no mission too hard for us! OORAH!' Tigress, Jared and I shouted our 'human battle cry' with him. Khan roared out, deafening everyone in the club. Ghost jumped up with his rocket boots, made a double backwards somersault and landed back on his feet. Jesanya created three biotic fields above us and imploded them, causing a short, blue firework show.

'Here's to us!' I said, and I chugged down the shot. Everyone did the same. Even Jesanya, from whom I would've expected she wouldn't like alcohol. Then Khan gave me a shoulder bump. 'What do you say, how about a drinking contest?'

I looked at Zack and I could literally see him go completely white. I grinned and just to tease Zack, I said: 'Careful there, Khan. I'll drink you under the table!' 'HA! We'll see about that!' he replied and he sat down at the bar. I sat down next to him and Khan ordered two shots. 'Okay, I take one and then you follow up, alright?' he said. I nodded and he slammed down the first. He looked at me and I did the same.

'This is easy. When are we getting started?' I asked. Khan just shook his head, ordered two more shots and drank his. He looked at me and I drank mine again. Khan narrowed his eyes. 'Okay, so your alcohol tolerance isn't zero… This could get interesting!' he said.

I felt fuzzy and my vision was blurry. If I turned my head, my vision would only adjust a second later. It had been 10 shots already and Khan looked like he was about to give up. He touched his 11th shot glass, but then he pulled back his hand. 'Even with 3 livers, you have to know your *hiccup* limits. Tell you what, Cale. You drink this one and you win the contest!' I grinned, grabbed my shot glass and chugged that bastard down. His eyes grew. 'Well, you just beat a Krogan in a drinking contest. Congrats!'

I smiled and tried to stand up from the chair, but I only ended up falling backwards. When I landed, I rolled back and stood right back up. Khan laughed. 'Okay, you're pretty damn drunk!' I looked at Zack, who was shaking both his heads in disappointment. 'Come on, Cale,' he said, 'You know better than to accept a drinking challenge from a Krogan!'

I hiccuped. 'Well… I had to prove I'm crazy… Right?' I said. He laughed, shook his head and looked around. 'Come on, most of the squad has already gone to their rooms. We should…' Then an alarm went off. It was loud at normal times, but right now, it was deafening.

Commander Aston appeared on all holoscreens. 'Attention everyone, there are hostiles in this station. I repeat, hostiles in this station! Stay alive at all costs!' Then the feed stopped and we heard an explosion somewhere in the station. Zack cursed. 'Out of all the times, you chose NOW to get drunk?!' he said. I shook my head slowly. 'Get me to my room. I need my gun.' Zack nodded and started leading on.

It wasn't long either before we knew who was attacking us. Around the corner we could hear a mechanical noise and right after that, two Geth walked around. Before I knew it, they were down and I was standing in between them. Zack's eyes grew. 'Where'd you learn that?' I frowned. 'Where did I learn what? And why are there dead Geth here?'

He put his face in his hands. Because you just kicked them both down, martial arts style!' I didn't even remember such a thing, but I shrugged and stumbled on. As we continued through the station, my senses were slowly returning to me, and also more Geth stood in our way. I now noticed how my body reacted naturally – I would stand on my hands, give the Geth a high kick in the head, then wipe out their legs from them and kick them in the head, only to get back up on my hands, do a high backwards kick, then aim a little lower and stomp them full in the stomach.

The Geth both fell down and I saw Zack sweating. 'I see that you use a combination of capoeira and high-class karate, but try to save some for me, will you?!' We reached his room first and he got out his Lancer. Then we continued to my room quickly and got my Predator. Then we received a message over our personal omnitools. It was Jesanya: 'Khan has gone on a drunk rampage, he's destroying the Geth, but some of them made it to Commander Aston's office before we could get them. Get over there, quick!'

I was the first one to start walking. Aston was a father figure to all of us and I didn't want him to die. I started walking as fast as I could. Strangely enough, being drunk also calmed me down. Not only did it apparently give me martial arts (I kind of felt like Rock Lee from Naruto at this point), it also focused me in a strange way.

As we continued down the hallways, more Geth got in our way. Zack and I agreed that he'd take the left side of every hallway and I'd take every right side. With this tactic, we blasted through five hallways, three corridors and one particularly nasty intersection, where the Geth tried to flank us.

Luckily, Zack wasn't drunk, so he could hear them coming every time. I was sobering up slowly, but I was still not sober enough to see 100% straight or hear 100% straight. My senses were still a bit dulled, it seemed.

Finally, we reached Commander Aston's office. Once inside, we discovered the Commander standing in the room, panting heavily, with five dead Geth around him. He pointed his gun at us as soon as we entered, but he breathed out in relief as soon as he saw that it was Zack and me.

'Oh, thank god, it's you two. Listen up, I know where the Geth are coming from. You two get Khan. I know he's on a drunken rampage right now, but he's the only one physically strong enough to drive away the Geth.'

I nodded. 'Okay, where are we going, sir?' I asked. Commander Aston pointed at a holoscreen with a map of Pinnacle Station. 'They're originating from this floor, from the hangar. Thing is, they slammed anchors into the station and that means their ship is stuck here. That also means that the Geth have a Command Post. I want you two to get Khan, secure the hangar and capture their CP, and then break those anchors. Khan is the only one who can break those anchors, so go get him. Last I checked, he was in the mess hall making a… mess.' Zack and I grinned and saluted. 'Yes, sir!' we said.

We went out the office, but then I stopped Zack. 'How about this: One of us gets Khan, the other starts attacking the CP and weakens it before Khan gets here.' Zack thought about it for a moment. Then he nodded and said: 'Alright, you go get Khan. I'll deal with the hangar.'

I patted him on the shoulder and started running. Due to my enhanced legs, I sprinted faster than even the Geth could. On the way to the mess hall, I didn't want anything to stop me. Two Geth got in my way, but I simply sprinted right at them, then jumped up and did a roundhouse kick with both my legs, knocking both their heads clean off.

While continuing to the mess hall, I grinned. This leg power I had was pretty amazing. But then the grin disappeared. I stood in the mess hall and Khan had pretty much torn everything there apart. He looked completely blood-crazed and he was laughing like a maniac. Now, under normal circumstances, I would've joined in with him, but now was not the time for humor.

'Khan!' I shouted. Khan looked around, then he suddenly grinned like an idiot and waved at me. 'Oh… Hey, Cale!' he said. He walked towards me and gave me a heavy pat on the shoulder. This time I didn't fall over, though.

'This is pretty good, isn't it?' Khan asked. I nodded. 'Yeah… Nothing like a good 'bandit raid', am I right?' I replied. He laughed and looked me in the eyes. 'You can't have come all the way to get me without a reason. I think you want to blow up something specific, huh?' I nodded. 'Yeah. The Geth are coming from the hangar. We need you to destroy the anchors with which their ship is attached to the station. Hopefully, there's going to be some explosions.'

Khan's grin turned evil. 'Oh, you just said the magic word. I'm in, lead the way!' I took point, leading Khan to the hangar. This time, there were no Geth between us and our destination. I smiled, knowing that Zack was doing his job pretty well, but my smile faded when we arrived in the hangar.

What we saw was bad, even for my standards. The Geth were literally all over the hangar and their ship was bigger than we thought. And when I saw Zack, my blood started boiling. Zack was lying on the ground, unconscious. And he had only one arm.

I felt a vein bulging in my temple and I slowly felt rage coming up. I decided to take it out on the Geth. I gave Khan a nudge. 'Hey, Khan.' He grumbled. 'I'm gonna tear these fuckers apart. Have fun, but don't get in my way,' I said. He grinned. 'Who's the better fighter?' he asked. I nodded and reloaded my gun. 'Oh, yeah,' I replied.

I didn't hesitate, I charged right into the Geth ranks, kicking some and shooting others. I started to rampage. I hated these damn things. I wanted them all dead and picked apart at my feet. I wanted to destroy everything!

As I destroyed them one by one, I saw Khan out of the corner of my eye. He was pretty much shooting, punching and head butting at the same time, he was a real tank. I grinned, but my eyes expressed no joy. I kept ripping them apart and soon, there was just one left. And he was bigger than all the others.

I cursed. 'Khan, tackle him!' I shouted. Khan tried to approach the Geth, but it shot a massive blast at him, missing only at a hair's width. Khan roared and shot at the Geth. This caused it to hold its arm in front of its head, to protect his sensors from damaging.

While Khan kept shooting it, I ran over to it and leapt up into the air and kicked its head. It didn't shatter, like with the others, but I did break its neck with the pure power behind the kick. The Geth fell down and I gestured Khan to stop shooting. He stopped and I exacted my revenge.

I kicked the Geth again to stun it, then I grabbed its arm. I kept pulling and pulling until I heard cables snapping. At the same time, something in my head snapped and I got angrier than I was before. I ripped the Geth's arm clean off and started beating it to death with it.

With every hit, the head dented and eventually I hit it so hard with its own arm, its head just fell apart. I panted heavily, sweated like a pig and threw down the arm. Then I said: 'Khan, take this thing with you, including this ripped off arm. I have an idea. Blow up those anchors first, though!'

I ran over to Zack, who was still bleeding from his wound. 'Zack! Zack, are you awake?' I shouted. Zack grunted a bit and opened his eyes slightly. 'Cale…?' he whispered. Then he passed out again. His skin was almost as white as snow and his breathing accelerated.

I cursed. 'Fuck, he's going into shock!' I shouted. I picked him up and carried him to the med bay, while Khan took care of the Geth anchors. I hadn't run halfway when I felt the anchors being cut. I increased my speed a bit and finally arrived at the med bay.

I put him down on an operating table immediately and called a doctor. 'This man is the best soldier around here and my brother in arms, help him!' I shouted. The doctor nodded nervously and went to work. First he cauterized the wound, then he wanted to stitch up the wound, but I stopped him. 'Wait a moment, I have an idea.'

Right at that time, Khan came in with the dead Geth. 'What the hell do you think you're doing in here with that… thing?!' the doctor shouted. I looked him straight in the eyes. 'Are you good with cybernetics?' I asked. The doctor swallowed. 'Yes… I'm quite an expert on that. I have had personal teaching from a Quarian, so…'

I sighed out in relief. 'Good. Do you know how the Geth work?' I asked. He scratched his chin. 'I do know to some extent, yes. I can re-wire them, that's for sure.' I put a hand on his shoulder. 'Do you think you can link Geth parts to a human?' I asked. His eyes grew. 'But… Are you serious?' I kept staring at him, with a dead serious look. He swallowed and nodded. 'Alright… What do you want me to do?' he asked.

I pointed at the arm. 'Link this Geth arm to his body, but make it so that the shoulder guard can be taken off. The arm also has to be shortened a bit. When you've done that, attach it to his body and link it to his nervous system, he has to be able to use the tech that comes with it, as well.' The doctor paused a second, but then he nodded, to my surprise. 'Alright… Anything else?' he asked.

I nodded and pointed at a pile of rubble what seemed like it used to be the Geth's head. 'The Geth have cybernetics that increase their performance and weapon synergy. See if you can install one in his body.' The doctor nodded and waved me away. 'Alright, I'll do it. But you'll owe me a favor from now on, got it?' he said. I nodded. 'You have my word. Thank you very much for saving my friend,' I replied. Then I went to Commander Aston's office.

Once there, I discovered that the rest of Wolf Squad was there as well. And they looked worried. 'Where's LC Johnson?' Jared asked. 'Wasn't he with you?' Tigress added. I calmed them down, but looked at the ground. 'Zack… Lieutenant-Commander Johnson… He got hurt badly during the battle… He lost his right arm.' I saw Tigress' shock. She immediately started running for the med bay. I let her run.

Then I activated my comm and addressed all of Pinnacle Station: 'Attention, everyone. I know Commander Aston is waiting for us, but I have something to say. Today the Geth bested us. Our top soldier, Lieutenant-Commander Johnson, has fallen in battle and lost his right arm. Right now, a special procedure is being conducted to get him back. I know it's bad timing, since there are other wounded and a lot of dead here, but I ask of anyone who at least gives a damn: Wolf Squad doesn't have enough money to pay for this operation. So I ask everyone who can to make a small donation, so that our top gun can get back up again! Thank you for your time, everyone.'

The door opened and we stepped inside Aston's office. There, he was waiting for us. Shaken, but solid. 'Wolf Squad, you guys have once again proved that you are geniuses in this retrospect,' he said. 'The sheer force of the Geth alone was already overwhelming. But several members of this squad defended everyone else from the Geth on the lower levels. For that, I want to personally thank you.' Then he looked at me and Khan. 'And there are three of you who got the Geth off Pinnacle Station, one of which has been hospitalized and is being operated at the moment.'

He paused for a second. Then he said: 'I realize your leader isn't here right now, but I am including him into what I have to say now:' Everyone held their breath. Then, Aston said: 'I'm commending all of Wolf Squad for the N7 program!'

**That's it for chapter 4. Thank you very much for reading, hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review as it really helps me out and, as always, have an awesome day!**


	5. Chapter 5 - A new Body

**Brothers in Arms**

Chapter 5 – A new Body

**Zack POV**

I woke up slowly. I could only remember how the Geth attacked Pinnacle Station and that I felt a big bullet enter my shoulder before I apparently passed out. Then my eyes grew wide and I looked at my right arm. A tear came up in my eye when I noticed that my entire right arm was gone.

I let my eyes go around and I saw that I was in Pinnacle Station's med bay. I also saw some… Hold on, that couldn't be right! I tried to get up, but I really couldn't. I was locked down on the operating table. Then a doctor approached. I recognized him from his face, but I didn't know his name.

He noticed that I was awake and he sighed. 'Oh, why did you have to wake up now?' he grunted. I frowned. 'What the hell is going on here?' I asked. The doctor didn't look at me, but simply said: 'Ask your friend. Cale. He convinced me to do this for you. You're getting an upgrade, my friend.'

He came back with anesthetics and injected them into my neck. First I felt the initial pain ebb away, then my eyelids slowly caved in and I fell right back asleep.

When I woke up, I felt… strange, to say the least. I looked around once more and found Cale standing next to my bed. His face lightened up when he noticed that I was awake. 'Well well, look who it is!' he said. He sat down on the edge of the operating table. 'How are you feeling?' he asked. I sighed. 'Like hell. I lost an arm, man.'

He grinned. 'Yeah, but you got a better one in return. Look now.' I looked and my heart skipped a beat. Attached to my body was a Geth arm, exactly fitting my body's proportions. And I noticed that I actually FELT things with it!

I tried flexing my finger muscles as usual, and the Geth arm responded. My eyes grew wider than before. 'Oh, no way!' I shouted. I got up and moved around the arm. I laughed at its weight, I felt nearly nothing. Then I pointed my arm upwards and a gout of fire burst out. I cursed and concentrated on putting the flames away. The flames stopped.

'Whoa… I have to admit, this is pretty cool!' I said. Cale laughed. 'Yeah, figured you'd like it!' he replied. Then he put the tip of his index finger on my head. 'We also put something in there,' he said. I frowned. 'Hold on, you didn't put a control chip in there, did you?!' I said loudly. He raised an eyebrow. 'Nope. You're in control of this kind of chip. It gives you the Geth Hunter Mode, as I saw in the Geth's data core, which the good doctor here managed to recover.'

The doctor nodded. 'It was a lot of work, but we managed to get a lot of data off this Geth. It was a Juggernaut, one of the heavier classes. I modified its arm so that it fits you and removed all those excess cables. Also, the shoulder guard used to look very different. I reshaped it to fit your shoulder more properly.'

I gave Cale a gesture and he brought me a mirror. He grabbed one and held it in front of me. I held up the Geth arm and positioned it in multiple ways. It looked really weird how a Geth arm was responding to what my body told it to do.

I looked at Cale. 'So, what happens now?' I asked. Cale gestured me to follow him. As I walked, I noticed that I felt a bit lighter than before, and my senses were sharpened. I could see, hear and feel more. I felt a slight breeze going through the hallways of Pinnacle station – the air conditioning. I could hear multiple voices talking – the voices of marines down in the mess hall, which was a floor below us. And I could see red shapes behind walls – marines walking towards or from their posts.

Cale stopped and looked back at me. 'Umm… Zack? You look like you're spacing out. What's wrong?' he asked. I grinned. 'Absolutely nothing, actually. What the Geth experience… I have to admit, it's pretty damn amazing!' Cale just turned back around and continued leading on.

'How's Wolf Squad doing?' I asked whilst walking. Without stopping, Cale answered: 'Jesanya is researching on that Prothean shard you gave her. She believes it's a memory shard. Khan is doing some personal business on Tuchanka, but he'll be back in a few days. Jared has worked on upgrading his explosives arsenal, and has been successful. Ghost has been to STG and had some extra training from them. He's currently relaxing here at Pinnacle. And Tigress…'

I frowned. 'What happened to Kate?' I asked. Cale stopped. 'She's worried sick about you. After you report to Aston, I want you to go to her. She needs to see you right now.' I nodded slowly. 'I understand… I'll go to her.' Cale nodded and continued leading the way again.

When we finally reached Commander Aston's office, he was already on his way outside. 'Oh, it's you two… Wait, what is that?' he said. He looked at my Geth arm and frowned. 'Did I give permission for such a thing, Damon?' he asked. Cale shook his head. 'No, sir. But due to the fact that Zack would've been out of commission otherwise, I took matters into my own hands. I'll take full responsibility.'

Aston hushed him. 'I didn't say it was a bad idea… I'm just a little worried about your eagerness.' I grinned. 'Don't worry sir, he was just trying to help me out. And it worked just fine!' Aston now looked interested. 'I have to admit, I'm looking forward to what that arm can do. Can you do a couple of things I'm going to ask you to do?' he asked. I nodded. 'Fire away, sir,' I answered.

First I had to move the fingers, then the entire arm. Then Aston made me do push-ups with one arm. Due to the Geth arm being mechanical, I wasn't even tired after about 200 push-ups. I saw Aston grinning. 'Alright, now let's do a test of how powerful this arm is,' he said. He told me to stay put and walked off. Soon after, he came back with a metal plate and a standard to hold it in. He attached the metal plate to the standard and stood back. 'Punch the plate, let's see what you got!' he said.

I breathed out slowly. Then I punched the plate as I normally would a man. Except that my arm went right through the metal plate like a knife through butter. I saw Aston's eyes grow large. 'I expected a lot, but to this extent…' He looked at Cale. 'This is a pretty interesting discovery, Damon,' he said. Cale smiled. 'Thank you, sir. I hope Zack will do his best with this thing.' I grinned. 'Oh, that I will,' I replied.

After Aston was done with me, I did as Cale asked and went looking for Tigress. I couldn't find her anywhere in the station, so I decided to visit her cabin. Before I knocked on the door, I looked through the wall to see what she was doing. And I saw that she was sobbing. I knocked on the door softly, since I'd punch right through otherwise. I saw her compose herself. 'Yes?' she said.

I opened the door and revealed myself. I saw her eyes grow wide and her mouth opened up a little bit. 'Zack, is that you?' she asked. I grinned and nodded. 'Alive and kicking, Kate,' I replied. She walked past me, closed the door and then surprised me by hugging me tight. 'I was so worried…' she said, and she started crying again. I didn't know how to respond, so hugged her back. And it felt good. I let her cry until she was finished.

I looked down at her face and dried her tears off her cheeks with my hands. 'I'm alright, Kate. Look, I even got an upgrade.' Kate looked at my arm moving around and she couldn't keep her eyes off it. 'Does it have capabilities that the Geth have themselves?' she asked. I nodded. 'It has a flamethrower, yeah,' I answered.

Kate raised an eyebrow. 'A flamethrower?' she asked. Then she started laughing. 'Wow! That's bloody amazing! And how strong is it? Can it punch hard? Does it give you extra shielding? What are the capabilities?'

I spent the next half hour showing her everything the arm could do. I made her laugh on several occasions, and I just now realised that she had a beautiful smile. I grinned and put a hand on her shoulder. 'Why were you so worried about me?' I asked. She looked down, but I noticed her blushing. 'Well, I…' she stumbled. But I lifted her chin up with my human hand. I smiled gently while looking her right in the eyes. 'If you like me, just say so. I noticed you blushing just now.'

Her eyes grew wide and before she could react, I kissed her on the lips. I was a bit dazzled when I felt that she was kissing me back. When I let go, I looked into her eyes and felt like I hadn't seen that beautiful loving look in a long time. 'This is against the rules, you know…' she said softly. I grinned and pulled her down onto her bed. 'I'm not one for rules,' I answered. And we locked lips again.

At a certain moment, when things progressed, my Geth arm touched her skin for the first time. She shivered. 'It's a bit cold…' she said. I grinned and kissed her. 'Oh, but I'm hot enough to compensate for that, right?' She laughed. 'I would've expected a better joke, especially at this time… But since this is you we're talking about…' She grabbed me and put me on my back. Then she climbed on top of me. 'Just lay back and enjoy the ride,' she said. I grinned and thought: 'That's what she said.'

Weeks passed. Wolf Squad was assigned on several smaller missions, including a particularly nasty mission on Illium, where we had to take down a gangster cartel. But then came our sixth 'official' mission. That was something we had never seen before… That was the point where everything went to hell.

**Thank you very much for reading, hope you enjoyed. Excited for the next chapter? I promise, shit will go down. Please leave a review as it really helps me out and, as always, have an awesome day!**


	6. Chapter 6 - An Explosive Situation

**Brothers in Arms**

Chapter 6 – An explosive situation

**Cale POV**

I listened carefully what Zack had to say about the mission. He was the only one that was briefed about our mission and he now had to explain it to us. While he explained that we had to destroy a Geth compound, I noticed several squad members looked nervous.

'All we have to do is steal the Geth base's data cores and then we blow up the place,' Zack said, and he looked at Jared. 'I trust you have your new explosives ready?' Jared grinned and opened up his bag. I cringed when I saw the contents. 'Military-grade nuke, that base is as good as gone!' Jared said with a big smile.

Zack laughed and patted Jared on the back. 'If we're going down there anyway, we have some fun while we're at it, am I right?' Jared nodded and started laughing as well. In all my years, Zack had never been such good buddies with any other guy but me. I guess I recognized a bit of myself in Jared, though. He wanted to see action and he wasn't one to quit. Ever.

Then the shuttle landed, we got out and immediately saw where we had to go. A big compound with a tall tower was right in front of us, and we already saw Geth crawling all over the place. 'Wolf Squad, take cover and shoot to kill!' Zack roared. With the element of surprise, the Geth stood no chance. We all ducked to cover and unleashed a full salvo of fire on them. Four pistols and three assault rifles shredded the nearby Geth, and the coast was soon clear. No alarm was heard from the base.

I grinned. 'Fast 'n quiet. Nicely done, everyone!' I said. Khan nodded and took point. Jesanya put biotic barriers around all of us, so our shields were improved even more. Ghost activated stealth mode and advanced closer to the walls, so he could ambush incoming Geth easier.

As we walked to the hallways, I somehow felt that something was wrong. I didn't know what it was, but I had an uneasy feeling that I couldn't shake easily. Then my stream of thoughts was interrupted by Zack's voice. Jared, place a nuke over here. If you have any auto-turrets with you, put one down here so the Geth don't deactivate the bomb.' Jared nodded and followed orders.

I approached Zack. 'Zack, do you have that feeling as well?' I asked. Not to my surprise, he nodded. 'Yeah, I know what you mean,' he answered, 'Something's wrong.' I looked around, then turned back to Zack. 'Just be careful, alright?' I said. I took Khan and Jesanya with me for a short recon tour, while Zack, Jared, Tigress and Ghost stayed behind to place bombs all over.

Once I had walked twenty meters, I heard a mechanical… breathing? I couldn't place where it came from, but it was going somewhere. I followed the sound, with Khan and Jesanya close behind me. We arrived in a corridor and the breathing stopped. I lowered my gun. What the hell was going on? I tightened my grip on my pistol and signaled my companions to stand ready for trouble.

And sure enough, Geth jumped out of the other side of the corridor. We started shooting, but were then surprised when Geth came out of the ceiling and went at us with melee combat. I set all electrical power in my suit to my shields and started kicking away, while Khan just rampaged through the Geth and Jesanya started tossing them around like ragdolls.

As I kicked in the head of the last Geth, I heard Jesanya give a short shout of pain. I looked behind me immediately. 'Jesanya! Are you okay?' She was bleeding out of a bullet wound in her side. 'Don't worry, I'm alright,' she said. 'It didn't hit any vital organs, it just pierced skin.' With her biotics, she reached inside her body and pulled out the bullet. I raised an eyebrow. 'That could come in handy later. Need any help with bandaging the wound?' I asked. But she had already done so and she smiled. The first smile I actually ever saw from her. 'Don't worry, I'm fine, Cale,' she said.

I turned around and took point again, but deep down I started thinking. Why did she call me by my first name, there? Wasn't she getting a bit too familiar? I shook off the thoughts and focused on the mission again. We needed to scan the compound and clear the way for Jared to set up the explosives.

As soon as we headed around the next corner, though, too many things happened at the same time. Zack's group came out of the corridor opposite of us, Geth came crawling out the walls and ceiling and an explosion rocked the entire base.

I held my feet tight on the ground and kept Jesanya on hers. And then the fight started. Whilst Zack was shouting orders, I took cover and started shooting enemies without thinking. I felled one Geth after the next, but took some hits in the process. Jared threw a grenade at a small group of Geth and it ripped them to shreds. Jesanya's biotics lifted the Geth up in the air and smashed them back into the ground. Khan, Ghost and Tigress were using their melee prowess on the enemy to thin their ranks. Then another explosion could be heard and felt.

I cursed. 'What the fuck is going on, Zack?!' I yelled. Zack punched a Geth in the face and took back-to-back position. As he shot the remaining Geth, he yelled: 'There was an accident downstairs! A Geth Prime saw us and shot at us, rendering the explosives useless! He also hit a reactor, and now half the systems in this base are malfunctioning, causing several walls to be blown apart! We need to be seriously careful!'

A second explosion could be heard, and it was close. I cursed. Everyone, keep it together! We'll make it!' I shouted. I looked at Jared. 'Jared, what's the next position to place the explosives?!' Jared pointed forward. 'There's a corridor not too far from here, it's an intersection. The framework of this base all comes together there. But if we're going to blow this place, we have to do it NOW!'

We started running as fast as we could. The explosions around us were only internal, they would destroy a large part of what was inside of it, but not everything would be destroyed. The Geth would just repair all the damage and keep attacking from this position. That was why we needed to place these last explosives, otherwise this mission would fail and we would probably lose even more people to the Geth.

As we advanced, the explosions kept getting closer. I heard Zack shouting, and I recognized his angry voice. This was his boiling point, and knowing him for a long time, I knew not to go in against him now. 'FOR FUCK'S SAKE, KEEP RUNNING OR WE'RE ALL DEAD!' he roared. Everyone started double-timing it and sprinted as fast as they could.

As we got closer, even more Geth attacked us. We handled them as fast as we could, but the delay was putting too much pressure on us. But eventually, we got to the spot where we needed to be. Jared placed the explosives and started wiring them and we watched his back. But then…

An explosion could be heard. It sounded like it was right behind us. A short shout of pain and a CLANG!, signaling metal slamming into metal. I saw Zack looking behind him with big eyes, and my vision followed.

Jared's legs had been cut off by a metal plate that flew off the wall. He was bleeding heavily, but was still alive. And apparently very conscious, because he grasped at the detonator, which fell out of his hand. 'Give me the detonator!' he yelled.

I picked it up and put it in his hands. 'Now run!' Jared yelled. Zack got even angrier. 'NO! You are my friend and I am NOT leaving you behind, Jared! You're coming with us, damn it!' Jared punched Zack in the face, for as far as he was able. 'My legs are gone, idiot! You get the fuck out of here now and message me when you're in the shuttle, then I'll blow the nuke!'

Khan yelled: 'Let him die a warrior, Commander! It's what he wants!' Tigress put a hand on Zack's shoulder. 'We can't help him like we did Cale. He's never going to be able to fight again. Let him die with honor,' she said. Zack's head tilted down, but he didn't move. I decided to take matters into my own hands. 'Everyone, move your ass now! Zack, get up or we'll leave you here, too!' Zack stood up slowly, head still tilted down. Then he made a fist and pointed it forward. Jared bumped it with his. 'Time to go, bro!' he said. Zack nodded and finally started following us.

It took us not even five minutes to get out of the base, everyone wanted to live. But everyone's thoughts were also with Jared. We arrived at the LZ and stepped inside the shuttle. I warned the pilot: 'Get us out of here, now, a nuke is about to blow!' The pilot nodded and took off immediately.

Back in the passenger seats, Zack was trembling. 'You know Wolf Squad won't be complete without you, right?' he said. Everyone heard Jared say: 'Wolf Squad is the Alliance's finest. Don't worry. You guys are skilled enough to make up for my loss.'

I looked at Jesanya and noticed that she was crying. Tigress had her fists clenched and Khan simply stood there, staring at the ground. Ghost was the only one who seemed composed, but I knew that he was worked up as well. I myself considered Jared as a good friend, but he was also a soldier. He knew what he was getting into. Then again, I preferred him with us. The more the merrier, after all. His death would leave a mark on Wolf Squad.

I sat down next to Zack and put my arm on his shoulder. 'Let's get back to Pinnacle Station and inform Aston about Jared's death, okay?' I said. Zack just sat there, staring at the ground, but I heard him mumble: 'Yeah…'

When we finally arrived at Pinnacle Station, the first thing I did was send everyone to their rooms. Then I put a hand on Zack's shoulder and nearly dragged him along to Aston's office. Once we got there, Zack stood still. 'Cale, I want to go in there alone, okay?' he said. I frowned. 'Commander goes in with his XO, it's protocol,' I replied. But Zack shook his head. 'I'm going in alone. Commander's orders.' I wavered, but then I nodded and let him enter on his own. I returned to my room and waited for other news.

About an hour later, I heard Aston's voice on the intercom, he was addressing all of Pinnacle Station: 'Attention, everyone. I want all marines to light a candle tonight, for we have lost one of our elite. Jared Foster, our explosives specialist from Wolf Squad, is KIA. He died while destroying an entire Geth compound, all while having lost the lower half of his body. He went out as a hero, and I want each and every one of you to remember him that way! I'm sending ten thousand credits to his family and will personally see to it that Wolf Squad is compensated however they want to be. Commander Aston, out.'

I sighed deeply and fell backwards onto my bed. Then I jumped up again and kicked my metal chair, bending one side and sending it flying across the room. I then decided to lay down again and close my eyes, I'd seen enough for one day.

**That was chapter 6, everyone. Thank you very much for reading, hope you enjoyed. I'm hoping you're not too bummed out by Jared's death, but it had to be done! Please leave a review as it really helps me out and, as always, have an awesome day!**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Dawn of Mourning

**Brothers in Arms**

Chapter 7: The Dawn of Mourning

**Zack POV**

I was seated at the bar, drinking my twelfth shot. I wanted to get drunk, but my cybernetics automatically filtered all the toxins from my body, so I wasn't doing very well in that aspect. Jared's death still haunted me. He was one of my best friends, and I had a lot of fun with him being in Wolf Squad.

As I ordered my thirteenth shot, I noticed someone sitting next to me. I looked up and it was Kate, who had seated herself next to me without me noticing. I smiled wryly. 'Hey…' I simply said. Kate said nothing, but just put her head on my shoulder and put an arm around my waist. I appreciated that. She always knew how to comfort me, no matter the situation.

A few minutes passed, and she said: 'We can't mourn him forever, Zack.' I hugged her a bit tighter, then I let her go and drank my shot. 'I know… It's just…' 'It's just that he died under your command?' she asked. I nodded silently. 'Yeah.'

Kate took my hand. 'How many shots have you had already?' I grinned. 'That was number thirteen, but due to my Geth cybernetics, I can't get drunk. Automatic filters.' Kate laughed and stood up, pulling my hand. I stood up and followed her.

She led us to the combat simulator. 'I don't need to blow off steam, Kate, I already did that,' I said. 'The simulator is not only for combat, Zack,' she simply said. She went over to the Turian controlling the simulator and whispered a few words in his ear. The Turian nodded, pressed a few buttons, and said: 'You two can go in now. Take as long as you need.'

Kate took my hand again and led me into the simulator, without putting on armor or bringing along weapons. I frowned. 'What's going on, hon?' I asked. She grinned. 'Just come with me, okay?' she said. 'You'll see for yourself.'

We entered the simulator and I noticed that we were walking on sand. I also heard the rushing sounds of a sea close by. I could even smell the sea-air. But it was pitch-black around us. 'A beach at night?' I asked. I could barely see her, but Kate nodded. 'Come, let's sit down close to the water.' I followed her closely and as I did, I noticed that it was slowly becoming lighter around us.

Kate sat down, and I sat down next to her. She then hugged me tight and rested her head on my chest. I put an arm around her and held her close to me. Her body warmth was soothing and her being here with me was a real relief. Then I saw something on the horizon.

It was the sun. It was slowly rising, bathing the beach in a faint, but pleasant yellow glow. The glistening blue waters of the sea reflected the light and soon I could see everything. I could see the bright ball that was the sun, I could see palm trees in the distance and I could even feel the warmth the sun was radiating.

'This is lovely, Kate. Absolutely beautiful,' I said. She smiled. 'Just like me, huh?' she said with a wink. I grinned and gave her a kiss. It wasn't a long one, though, since the simulator had cameras to ensure nothing would go wrong.

We sat there and watched the sun rise until it stood high in the air. By the time that had happened, I was completely at peace. I still remembered Jared's death, but it didn't weigh down on me as much now. I stood up and reached out my hand to Kate, who took it and rose up as well.

We gave the signal to end the simulation and walked out of the simulator. Once out of there, the rest of Wolf Squad was waiting for us, including Cale, who was looking directly at me. 'Zack, I want to talk to you,' he said. I nodded and followed him, while the rest of Wolf Squad took Kate with them, also to talk, according to Ghost.

Cale and I ended up in his cabin. Then he turned around and looked at me. 'I know about you and Kate, Zack.' My eyes grew. I didn't want Wolf Squad to know that Kate and I were fraternizing, because it could result in us both losing our careers.

I narrowed my eyes. Cale saw my reaction and grinned. 'Don't worry about it, man, I support you two. Won't breathe a word to Aston, either. But tell me, how are you two doing?' I breathed out heavily in relief. At least he left our relationship alone.

I sat down on his bed, he sat down next to me and I told him everything. About how our relationship started, how far we had gone and about my feelings for her. 'I truly love her, Cale,' I said. He nodded. 'I don't have any doubts about that, but you do realize why Alliance Command is against fraternization, right?'

I frowned. 'Actually, no. They never told me.' Cale sighed. 'It's all good now, Zack, but she's a Marine, too. What if you lose her during a mission? You'll be scarred mentally and your capabilities will decrease.'

I considered his words carefully. Then I looked him straight in the eyes and said: 'I won't lose her. I can promise you that.' Cale sniffed. 'As long as you can stay true to that, you won't have any problems. Just don't say I didn't warn you.' Then he clapped me on the shoulder, hard. 'Come on, it's time to address Wolf Squad about Jared,' he said. I nodded, I hadn't thought about that until now.

I opened up Wolf Squad's personal comm channel. 'Wolf Squad, I want everyone to report in the debriefing room,' I said, 'I want to say a few words about our late friend.' I closed the channel again and started leading the way.

Fifteen minutes later, all of Wolf Squad had gathered in the debriefing room. I pressed a button and a clip came up. It was Jared, Cale and me during a party on Pinnacle Station. Then the clip moved on and showed him joking around while placing the explosives. And then, the moment of his death showed up.

I cringed when I saw Jared being cut in half again. Then I put up a picture of his face, just grinning at the camera. His light eyes had sparks in them, but we all knew that those eyes were gone, now. I started speaking:

'Guys, I know Jared might not have been as good a friend to everyone of us, but he was one of us nonetheless. He was a good soldier, loyal to the bone and very capable. But he was also a good friend. He knew a lot of good jokes and he certainly supported me at any time. Such a friendship cannot be replaced.' I saw Jesanya and Khan nodding in agreement.

'Jared's family has already been informed about his death and I'm having a meeting with them myself in a week,' I said. It was true, I had contacted Jared's family already. His mother stayed composed over the call, but I could tell she was completely devastated. The meeting would be next week, exactly 7 days from this point. Cale would take over the next mission while I was gone.

We took an hour to pay our respects to our fallen comrade. Then we went back to our rooms. Everyone except for me. I needed to do something about my combat skills, I somehow felt that they were lacking real punch.

When I arrived at the training room, Cale was there as well. 'Oh, hey there,' he said, 'I was just training myself and a little doodad I put in my armor. Check this out:' He stomped the ground and a powerful electric pulse came out of his foot, knocking me off my feet. I stood up and laughed. 'That's pretty cool, how'd you do that?' I asked. He grinned and pointed at his boots. 'Modified EMP bursts. Unlimited amount of uses out of it and it disables everything electric.'

I nodded. 'Looks good. Now come and help me figure out this Geth arm. I'm pretty sure it can do more than just produce a flamethrower.' The next five hours were spent trying out everything my arm could do and react to. Eventually, we discovered energy traces that led into my arm. I activated it and a cannon came out. I raised an eyebrow and asked: 'Wonder what this thing does?'

I aimed it at a target dummy and concentrated on firing the cannon. I proceeded to shoot out an energy blast so violent, I not only knocked the dummy clean off its pedestal, but also disintegrated it. Cale took a few steps back from me. 'Umm… Right… Let's just be careful where you aim that thing from now on, okay?' I laughed and he joined in.

When we came by, I pointed at his shoulder guards. 'Say, there's plenty room on those things for a stationary weapon, right?' I asked. He frowned, looked at his shoulder guard and nodded slowly. 'Hey, you're right… I'll see what I can do with it later, ok? Let's just take it easy for now and keep ourselves fit. You also have a meeting with Jared's family later, don't forget.' I sighed. 'I'm really not looking forward to it, bro,' I said. He put a hand on my shoulder. 'I know… Just stay professional, but let them know that Jared was a good friend of yours. You'll do fine.' I nodded in silent thanks and went back to my room. Next week wasn't going to be fun…


	8. Chapter 8 - Caged Wolves

**Brothers in Arms**

Chapter 8 – Caged Wolves

**Cale POV**

Jared was dead. The entire squad had accepted that already, but that didn't make our jobs any easier. We were now one man down, and we missed his lame jokes. Zack was also gone, he was talking to Jared's family and preparing an official memorial for him. Meanwhile, we were sent on a mission. It was supposed to be an easy one. We were to go to Illium and take down a small criminal cartel. So far, they had been charged with drug dealing, murder and kidnapping.

We landed an hour ahead of schedule, so we had plenty of time for recon. And it didn't take long before we found their hideout. The cartel was hiding in plain sight, in an old storehouse. It looked completely run down, but Ghost had heat scanners with him, and we received clear signals from down below.

Ghost looked at me and pointed downwards. 'All of them are down there. Just one problem. I count a total of one hundred heat signatures. How do we proceed?' I bit my lip. We were elites, but even a hundred people shooting at us was a bit too much.

I stood back up and beckoned the entire squad to enter the warehouse with me. We started looking around for an entrance. I checked the back of the warehouse. Khan and Tigress were on the left, Ghost and Jesanya on the right.

I moved my hands everywhere along the wall, and then I felt something odd. It felt like… I got hold of a handle. I pulled it and a door opened. Immediately, ten guns were aimed at me. 'And who do we have here?' a loud, brusque voice said.

A Batarian stepped forward. 'Stumbling into our hideout wasn't the smartest thing to do, Alliance flyboy.' I narrowed my eyes. 'A Batarian, huh?' I said. 'Heh. Not surprised. You people all seem to be criminals and terrorists, anyway.' Before he could react, I ducked away and yelled: 'Everyone, shoot to kill!' Wolf Squad started shooting into the entrance and mowed down everyone quickly.

I stood back up slowly, pistol in my hand. 'That was too close for comfort. Khan, take point. Everyone else, take line behind him and follow into the compound!' We lined up and followed Khan into the hideout.

A few stairs down, and we still hadn't been shot at. Something didn't feel right. I peeled my eyes and looked around. 'Stay sharp everyone, we might be walking right into a…' The lights in the hideout suddenly became brighter and we noticed that we were surrounded by the entire cartel. '…trap.' I said.

The cages we were put in were extremely cramped. Khan didn't even fit in the cages, so they detained him with as many chains as they could. Luckily, they hadn't taken away our gear, only our weapons. They were now discussing what to do with us.

'We should kill them right here, good riddance to those Alliance morons!' a Vorcha shouted. 'No!' a Batarian yelled. 'These guys don't look like average Alliance soldiers, do they? I think they're elites. Means they're good leverage. They might also get us a good sum of money!'

Then, I noticed our comm channel opening. I put it on inside my helmet, so the cartel wouldn't be able to hear a thing. 'What's going on?' I whispered. I heard Tigress answer: 'Just hold on a second. Is everyone here?' A grunt could be heard from Khan, and short yeses from Ghost and Jesanya. Tigress nodded. 'Alright, good. Listen up:'

'I opened up a comm channel with Commander Aston. We all have to put in ID and warn him that we've been captured. The only one who can get us out of this mess is Zack!' I had to do my best not to laugh. 'Zack? Please, he couldn't get us out of here if he tried,' I said. 'We're four and a Krogan strong and they still managed to catch us!'

I could almost hear Tigress' eyebrows furrowing. 'Four and a Krogan?' she asked. 'What the hell's that supposed to mean?' I grinned. 'I'll explain later. For now, let's go on with this plan. But don't be surprised if Zack gets caught as well once he gets here!'

I gave Tigress a short signal and she opened the channel with Aston. I whispered: 'Commander, this is Lieutenant-Commander Damon, Wolf Squad. We've been captured, we need help. Send squad leader in, over.' Aston's response was vague, but readable: 'Copy that, Wolf Squad. Calling Johnson now. Hang in there, we'll get you out of there.'

I breathed out in relief. One of the cage guards turned around. 'What are you sighing so deep for? Bored?' he asked. I looked him in the eyes. 'No, I just had an orgasm. Do you mind?' I answered. Tigress and Khan both started laughing out loud, and even Ghost started snickering. The joke earned me a hit in the face with a rifle butt, though.

'Make a joke like that again and I'll use this again,' the guard said. 'And next time, I'll rebuild your entire face!' I laughed. 'You think you can?' I asked. He narrowed his eyes. 'Do you want me to do it?' he asked. I kept looking him straight in the eyes. 'I want you to try,' I said. And more hits came in.

**Zack POV**

'We'll hold the memorial in two weeks, if that's alright with you, Miss,' I said. Jared's mother nodded slowly. 'That's quite alright. And it seems like you have a message coming in. Don't worry, this is all I wanted to hear. You can go back to Pinnacle Station, but you can also stay over for a while. Your choice.'

I looked at my comms and my eyes grew wide. Jared's mother looked at me. 'Is something wrong?' she asked. I nodded, looked back up and showed her the message Aston sent me: 'The Wolf has been caged.'

She frowned. 'What does that mean?' she asked. I stood up and started walking to the door. Just before I exited the house, I said: 'It means that Wolf Squad has been captured.' And I left. I started running towards my shuttle, which was parked about twenty meters away from the house. I frowned angrily. The Alpha would take care of his wolf pack. And if they were captured, he'd free them. I entered my shuttle and started flying. 'Hang in there, guys,' I said. 'I'm getting you out!'

**That's it for chapter 8. Sorry that it's so short, it's just that I'm pretty tired because of school right now and it's stressing me out a lot. My apologies for that, I'll be writing a massive chapter in the weekend. Anyways, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review as it really helps me out and, as always, have an awesome day!**


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